Mustard, 32 Race Course Road

I must say that this was an excellent discovery for Indian food. I first found out about this place some months back while I was lunching in the vicinity. I told myself that I'll be back to check out what this place is about and though it was a few months before I found myself back in Race Course Rd, I am pretty glad I did. Mustard specialises, it seems, in Bengali and Punjabi cuisine and the differences between the two offerings are highlight in their menu through the use of color codes. The interior is dressed in light warm colors which reminds me more than a little of Banoo.

The food here are noticeably different from the variety commonly found in North Indian eateries The same can be said for the taste and certainly, some of the dishes which are available elsewhere were quite a different thing here in Mustard. Amidst the differences, some were definitely better in my opinion.

Kolkatta Kathi Kebab Rolls

These kebab rolls which were served hot were pretty damn good and they're under the "trailblazers" section of the menu, which are, the starters. What they essentially were, is some sort of flat bread rolls that were packed with meat, onions, crunchy green peppers and some very tasty pepper sauce and seriously. They certainly made very excellent snacks. There are options of various fillings like mutton, chicken with eggs or even cheese. One could just eat a couple of these things and be filled.

Kolkatta Shingara

pyramid asunder

The kolkatta shingara wass a really delicious and non spicy pyramid shaped vegetable puff. The skin is akin to those found on curry puffs and the insides were filled with cauliflowers, potatoes and whole peanuts. The texture of this puff was pretty interesting in comparison with regular puffs because of the peanuts which offers a more distinguished crunch. The taste department came across as a little bland, but it seemed that quite a few of the dishes here come with little salt. Like the kebab rolls above, these puffs could get one stuffed easily.

palek paneer

These palek paneer (cottage cheese in puree-ed spinach) were probably one of the not so tasty ones for me because of the bits of ginger in the spinach puree and it's definitely the first time I've encountered ginger in them. It was otherwise, like the regular variety.

Kosha Mangsho (mutton masala)

mutton bryani

Bryani here was quite different from the regular ones which are sold elsewhere. There was almost no hint of any salt and little oil in the rice so all that was tasted were the spices that were used to flavor the dish. The serving was large enough to feed two and came with a pretty generous portion of large tender chunks of mutton and some potatoes. This is something I will want to have again if I ever come back here. What I also liked about this order of the bryani was that it came with an accompanying yoghurt dip on the side which was really good with the rice.

cheese naan

The cheese naans here aren't too special in comparison with other places I've tried. You might have guessed that they're probably not cheesy enough. And you're right about that. Still they came hot and freshly made.

Chingri Maacher Malai Curry

This coconut curry with shrimps is apparently a signature dish from the restaurant and it was good stuff. The curry as seen is colored similarly to oatmeal instead of the regular yellow and reddish hues. The taste of the curry was thick with coconut and the hint of some other spices which I couldn't identify. The overall flavor was quite rich, but not as spicy as most regular curries. The coconut came with its flesh on the insides which can be scraped out and this also meant that the fruit as a bowl, isn't recycled. The shrimps look to have been cooked in the curry for some time and was a tad flat in texture. This sure was something that I would recommend and was definitely good with rice.

Rossomalai

The rossomlai was basically cottage cheese in some sweet milk. Again, I detected ginger in the milk and it wasn't something that I was expecting. The cottage cheese here tasted like a wet dense bread of sorts instead of cottage cheese. Well, it's probably not something I'll be having again.